I didn’t have to wait too long to find out. At 5am (hurrah!) I was awoken by lots of noise outside my window. I was amazed to find a pigeon was flapping about, attempting to land on the feeder. After a couple of failed attempts it successfully landed and began to peck away. I scared it off by throwing a pair of boxer shorts at the window. Dirty pigeons, they love a bit of it.
I tried to go back to sleep, but now I was too busy thinking about how to resolve the situation. I had to stop pigeons using the feeder – no other birds would stand a chance and it would also cost me a packet in bird food. It may have been 5am, but it was time for some more Blue Peter DIY.
First, I used masking tape to make a bar across the front of the feeder hopefully preventing bigger birds from being able to land on it. Don’t worry though – I stuck 2 pieces of tape back to back so that there was no stickiness open to the air and there was no risk of causing any avian injuries. Satisfied with my handiwork, I tried to go back to sleep. A few minutes later, more racket. My initial delight at the recent success of the feeder was beginning to wane. Hoist by me own petard for birds. Somehow, the pigeon had managed to get past my makeshift bar and was back on the feeder gobbling up the food once more. A second pigeon was attempting to land on my windowsill. So back out again, this time adding two more bars. But I couldn’t stop there. No, I had to show those pigeons that they should give up trying to get onto the feeder, and piss off and let me kip.
After a root about in the kitchen (05.40am), I found some spare screw-type things and stuck three of these onto the roof of the feeder in order to stop pigeons landing on there. At ease RSPB wardens, I was careful to use flat-topped screws so there would be no impaled birdie accidents.
At the end of all this, my feeder now looked like it could go a few rounds with ‘Sir Killalot’ on Robot Wars:
It reminds me of the petrol station on the way out of Manchester towards Liverpool that’s practically armour-plated. The masking tape bars are only likely to be a short-term solution though – heavy rain and they’ll be knacked. Any ideas?
8 comments:
It's not the pretty, elegant bird-feeder it used to be. Might I suggest a hanging birdfeeder?
you should see it now...it got crazier last night - more blogs to follow.
You make a decent suggestion Ak but I don't think that's a go-er really. The main reason is that the trees in my garden are more like bushes really and their spindly branches probably wouldn't be up to the task. The branches that could do it are quite low and within easy picking distance for the cats that regularly patrol the area. I went for window with bird safety in mind.
We have a hanging birdfeeder in front of the bedroom window. It hangs off one of the very Scandinavian wooden grille-type things hanging above the window and is about 2 ft in front of the glass (we don't get many birds bumping into the window but occasionally some do). Any such facilities where you are?
I don't think so, but I'll look into it tonight. I'm giving away the outcome a bit here but the feeder is no longer on my window and I looked forward to peaceful sleep. Nope. The pigeons still woke me at 5, by flapping about at AN EMPTY WINDOW. Looks like it's getting personal.
I get 3 posts for a quality multi-subject blog and Ebola gets 4 comments (now 5) for yet another birdfest. Bring back the swing dancing, that's what I say!
It's not all about the comments G-Lord. Do you blog for the love of bloging, or just to get a big comment count?
Clearly I'm talking about the issues that are important to the kids on the street. If you're not down with jiving and bird feeding, too bad ;o)
I'm just waiting to the turn of subject (with resulting 10 blogs) to crocheting
your bird feeder looks a bit like it has a face. In fact it looks a bit like Nelly.
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